She walked a brisk pace from the reception desk to the right wing, a tablet held at her side by an orange aura. Four pairs of ponies looked up from their chairs as she passed them by, and her heart flickered at the sight of their tears. She pushed forward – there was no other choice at this moment. The door awaited, closed but unlocked, not unlike a sweet trap that would chew her up and spit her out.
Her breath short, Nurse Bitter Pill swallowed and trotted in. The only other conscious pony in the room rested on her haunches, a strand of her ethereal mane falling over her eyes. She did not react to the sound of the nurse’s hoofsteps, engrossed as she was in her task.
Princess Luna stared down at the sleeping foals in the beds with little strength left in her. Light flickered at the tip of her horn, fizzling out of existence. An insult toward the gods echoed on the wooden walls while she scrunched up her face and brought forth more magic. Trails of pale blue floated around the unconscious forms of two foals, neither of which so much as stirred from their slumber.
“H-hello, Princess Luna.”
“Hello,” came the curt, dry reply.
Awkward silence slipped between the two. One, pudgy, short, squirmed on her hooves, suddenly very interested in the report she was bringing with her. The other blinked some fatigue away, faltering despite not moving in the slightest. Her gilded silver horseshoes shook against the floor.
“What says the doctor?” she asked through gritted teeth.
The answer died on the nurse’s lips. There were results to be spoken of, of course, but in her heart, Nurse Bitter Pill knew that now was not the right time. A far more distressing issue needed to be addressed now.
“…You should rest.”
Lightning flashed in the princess’ mane, and her hoof came down on the floor with a crash of thunder. “It is not I that needs help!”
The nurse scrambled back, her ears flat, mumbled excuses coming out of her mouth as quickly as she could pronounce them. Her knees went weak, and she stumbled into a bow low enough for her muzzle to touch the cracked floor.
The ringing in her ears had not died out when she saw tall, thin legs shuffled about right before her nose.
Princess Luna closed her eyes and sighed. “My apologies. Thine… your concerns did not warrant such a volatile reaction.” Turning, she glanced at the filly on her right. “Tis but one more thing that should not have happened while I was here.”
Breathing again, Nurse Bitter Pill straightened and massaged her chest in the hope of calming her maddened heart.
“I… I understand, Princess.” She nodded quickly. “We are truly doing everything we can to solve this problem as quickly as possible.”
The papers floated up to the exhausted princess, who clumsily picked them up. Her eyes darted across the lines in search of a particular piece of information. She needed to be more subtle, more precise in her traps, else the dreamon might elude her again.
Seeing her subject nervously waiting, she lowered the tablet for a moment. “Did you?”
“Doctor Clean Bill has run the tests…” Her tail flicked to the side, and her voice rose in pitch somewhat. “He has found them all in perfect health, except for their inability to wake up. It’s the same for most of the patients, but one of them has started showing signs of deterioration.”
Princess Luna’s ear ticked. “Who?”
“The very first pony to fall prey to this affliction, Princess.”
For a second, it seemed as if she would slump down, crumble, under the weight of the events. “This should have never happened. I underestimated him and they paid the price.”
“Princess, this is not-” the nurse froze at the look of dire warning that crossed Luna’s face. “…What do you recommend we do?”
Silence fell. No noise came between them beside the faint shimmer of magic and the wrinkle of sheets when a foal turned in their sleep.
She stared at them, at the results of her pride and her folly. How bitter the reminder of her flaws. Had she thought herself infallible? Ah! Celestia would laugh, certainly. But more strongly her voice would be, when she pointed at their subjects. There was still a task to do, and no amount of self-pity would help them.
Luna, Warden of Dreams, looked at the foals once more and the spark in the haunted teal eyes hardened into a slimmer of ice.
~~
“More grape, Your Highness?” asked a sensual voice to my right.
Wordlessly, I opened my mouth and waited. A light delicate touch brush against my lips as a sweet piece of fruit slid on my tongue. Fighting a laugh, I savored every inch of the treat, lying beneath the great palm tree fans that sent a cool breeze over my fur.
No, it was not rest, it was lazing around. Nuances. All babysitters would know and understand the feeling of exhaustion that boggles down normal human beings after a day at a waterpark, be they made of clouds and gumdrops. And as a currently superior being, I felt none of those things. I just wanted to lie down in the sand for a little while.
I love being awesome.
How else would one explain the royal treatment I was getting? The citizens of Horseshoe Bay at least knew my place in the dream world. They welcomed us with trumpets and fanfares, as was right, and then led us all to the town’s square for an unofficial celebration. Confetti flew, music echoed and parties were thrown. More or less.
Heck, the foals had been getting their own town’s wide game of ultimate laser tag.
I was fairly sure none of them had ever played that game with actual laser guns before. Still, they took to it alright, if I were to judge. Once they had stopped tripping over their hooves and their allies and the sand and… okay, the design of the guns was not very well thought-out.
I snickered as a bunch of foals tumbled head over tails in a big melee, red rays of light striking in all directions to destroy the town. Amidst the chaos, shrilled demanding screeches pierced through. “Commander down! Commander down, you useless rock candies! Help your supreme commander!”
A tuff of pale pink hair pushed through the pile of foal limbs, followed by the rest of the pinker body of a filly. Cotton Candy, that sweet little unicorn.
“They’re getting away, stupid! After them!”
Well, until she got into a role, that is.
I was not surprised when the majority of the foals galloped as fast as they could after their enemies. Even a dream construct knew better than to say no to Cotton Candy’s diabetes inducing face.
Huffing, she looked at her disappearing army with a long-suffering sigh and followed.
But her movements became strange then. Sluggish. Her little legs were tense, and what muscles she had were tense like strings. She smiled still, but the rest of her belonged to a different pony.
I let out a soft gasp.
She turned instantly, her vivid magenta eyes looking straight at me. But they were clouded, dimmer, a shade of grey, almost. More like… less… A dream again. Something twisted in my chest at the thought, cold seeping through my coat.
Cotton Candy. The same filly I had entertained for a few hours in the clouds after putting her through that free-fall incident. The very same child that had clung to me as we went down a big slide of nimbuses.
Was she… gone?
No, I shook my head. That couldn’t be. The very idea was ridiculous! I’m dreaming! …But why do I care then?
Without thinking, I rose from my place on my throne and started to walk forward, intent on catching up. But there was another voice at the back of my mind that was asking a dangerous question. Why? It was just a dream, right? So what did it matter if the NPCs stopped acting human-like? So what if they stopped… being… if the light left their eyes and their smiles became fake…? That didn’t matter in the long run.
It was just me here. Not another soul, except those I made up.
Droplets hit the sand. Red, crimson little dots marred the beach, falling as if flowing from my own eyes. R-ridiculous! I wasn’t even-
“Huh, looks like you’re just a little crybaby with four left hooves,” rose a snide boyish voice.
I twisted, a snarl on my mouth, the sting of pride just twitching beneath my skin. Who dared?! My gaze swept the plaza, searching for the one, but no pony looked at me, even hinted at their previous mockery. What I saw, however, were two teenagers standing over a cream-colored foal on the ground.
“Hey!” I called, my tone rumbling in anger. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Some part of me expected them to be cowed, to immediately turn around and look guilty, but that was forgetting where I was.
The two burly colts faded into the air, their images distorted before they ceased to be. The one on the ground though remained.
Shaking. Sobbing.
I blinked, shaking my head and the memory of the ghost-like bullies. My legs carried me quickly, until I could kneel by his side. “Are you okay, kid?”
“Aaah!” cried the colt, scrambling away a few feet before calming down. “S-s-s-sir Doom!”
A deep, DEEP melancholy washed over me. Contrarily to my expectations, the name had gotten old in the span of… however long I had been here. To see a little guy like him, still so defensive, still so frightened, really did not help.
Next time, I’m not going for irony.
“Just William, please.” I picked him up the ground with a gentle hoof. “And your name is…?”
The colt’s breathe hitched up, pushing a strand of brown hair away, before he looked up with glistening chocolate eyes. “Sea Salt…” he replied weakly, his tail curled over his cutie mark.
My eyes followed.
A salt shaker tilted over a fork marked his flank. Nothing to be ashamed of. As far as I could tell, at least. I guessed it meant something like cooking or critiquing food. Just a pinch of salt there, it adds to the flavor, and other such comments.
“Well, what’s wrong?” I asked, putting my fat rump on the ground next to him.
“Huh… w-well…” he started slowly, his eyes darting over to the few dream ponies happily going about their businesses.
Oh, I thought, and kicked myself for not thinking about it sooner. Power flowed into my horn, the world flashed around us, and Sea Salt jumped, startled.
We weren’t in town anymore.
Lush green grass stretched as far as the eyes could eyes, and each strand, each blade of grass danced under the salty wind. No house, no pony could be seen neither west nor east, not toward the sea or deeper into the mainland.
I grinned. “This better?”
Sea Salt nodded dumbly, his mouth opened a fair bit larger than I thought he meant it to. It made a small childish part of me pump its imaginary fist in the air. Go, team Gary Stu.
“So, how about you tell everything to your good prince William?” I placed a wing over his back and smiled. “I know I can solve any problem you have here.” The best part is that it’s true.
The colt bit his lips, his ears ticking. Nervously, he looked back, as if trying to make sure the bullies hadn’t mysteriously appeared near us. As if I would allow that to happen. There was nothing but us for miles.
Sea Salt took a deep breath and grabbed my right leg with all his strength. “They were making fun of me because of my cutie mark!” he shouted as quickly as he could. “It’s stupid! It doesn’t fit me at all!”
Frowning, I spoke, softly, “Do you believe that?”
“Y-yes.” He sniffled, clinging harder. “I want to be a chef. I want to cook good food for mom and dad and everypony else.”
A weak wave of crimson magic ruffled the colt’s mane. Feathers closed over him and hugged him tightly. “That’s a very nice job. So, why is it wrong with your cutie mark?”
The colt’s tail twitched, and he buried his muzzle into my leg. “I’m just an earth pony…”
Some part of me inside broke.
My voice was but a whisper. “What has that got to do with anything, kiddo? Why would that be worse than being a pegasus or a unicorn?”
Sea Salt’s grip loosened, just a little. His eyes, damp and red, refused to meet mine. “Earth ponies aren’t good enough with the… the delicate stuff.” He put up his hooves together to try mimicking building something. “Just falls apart… when… when I try…”
The poor colt squeaked as a strong and firm wing grabbed his back and forced him against my shoulder.
“P-P-Prince William?”
Never again, I thought, snide words echoing at the back of my mind. Not here, not for this little guy.
“You’re going to listen to me very carefully, Sea Salt.” I moved away slightly, enough to lock gaze with him. A low rumbling growl threatened to come out of my mouth. “That was wrong! Completely wrong. On the wrong-o-meter, that scores an absolute one gazillion point. There is nothing wrong with being an earth pony. Got it?”
“Clear Coast and Fish Net…” he stuttered. “T-they said I’d never become a chef and they’re right! I’m just a dumb earth pony…”
I shook my head strongly, fire in my chest burning more strongly than ever. “Nope, utterly wrong wrong wrong, Sea Salt.”
“…The only chef in town’s a unicorn.”
“Puh-leaze!” I cocked a sly grin, and took on the tone of conspiracy. “That’s ridiculous. I know of amazing earth pony bakers. Heck, I know of a great mule baker too, who made a moose out of chocolate mousse. Does that sound like an easy thing to do?”
The gears behind his eyes turned, the image of the mousse moose a shadow in his mind. Something tugged at the corners of his lips, and it seemed like he was fighting a smile of his own.
“No…”
“Indeed not.” I nodded, quite literally exuding confidence. “So, who said that you had to be a unicorn to be a good cook? What chef said that, hmm?”
To this however, Sea Salt reacted not in the way I thought. Instead of gratitude and laughs and hugs, the colt’s newfound confidence popped like a balloon.
“Mister Small Fry,” he muttered, his ears drooping and his heart heavy. “He’s Miss Small Pond’s brother.”
Those last words caught my attention against my better judgment. I don’t recall seeing her brother before, nor her mentioning him. Then again, his parents clearly did not love him to give him that name, so… Ah, not important right now!
I stood up, taking a few steps away from Sea Salt. His gaze followed, curious in spite of himself, but too timid to dare speak up. My hooves stopped on the edge of a small cliff, just before the beach. Wind brushed against me stronger than ever before, and the sight ahead all but demanded fascination. The sea stretched across the horizon, swirling and rolling with waves under the setting sun, its depths colored by streaks of red and orange amidst the great marine blue.
This was still just around Horseshoe Bay, yet it was also the first time I had seen it. There were likely many more sights worthy of the attention, around this tiny town.
“Look,” I called Sea Salt to my side. “About your dreams. About your cutie mark. I know it seems bad now, but I’m telling the truth. It’s not something that’s closed to you. Earth ponies definitely can be good chefs, cooks or whichever you want. Just because this guy tells you it’s not doesn’t mean you can’t find someone else to teach you.”
The little colt snorted bitterly, his brows pulled together into a frown.
“He’s the only one I can ask here…”
For the first time since coming here, I was struck speechless. Truly, I did not actually know of the little guy’s situation, and here, empty reassurances might hurt more in the long run. What could I actually say that would help?
My dark red eyes trailed on the poor boy’s form, going from his depressed frown to the mark that seemed the source of his joy and despair. What happened to you?
I froze on the spot. What was I doing? His past? What past? This colt, real as he felt, only existed within this dream of mine! None of this actually mattered! If I wanted, I could just fly away and nothing of value would be lost, nothing terrible would happen, because this was all happening in my head!
“Is it… true?” Sea Salt asked, tugging at my right wing.
I blinked, realizing I hadn’t paid enough attention to him with my thoughts in shambles. “Huh, what is?”
“That…” The colt blushed and looked down. “That you can give wings or a horn to a pony.”
The temperature dropped. Thoughts of leaving and rebelling were blown out of my head in one fell swoop, and my mind reeled as his question sank in.
“It’s…” I paused, the words not coming out right.
No… that’s just wrong. I can’t… he shouldn’t…
He wants to change who he is. He’s not happy. He asked to become another kind of pony. That’s what he wants. Why is it wrong to wish to be something more than you are?
My gaze fell to my stupid, clichéd pitch black legs. Yup, that was me, William, the idiot who played alicorn. But it wasn’t a terrible thing, just something a bit selfish, a bit naïve, and here and now? Ultimately harmless.
In the corner of my eye though, there was the desperate bullied kid, that hoped to escape his fear by becoming someone else.
“It’s… true,” I finally said. Slow. Hesitant as if he were stealing a dark secret from me. “I can put wings on somepony, I already did. Probably wouldn’t be too hard to try with a horn either.”
The positively radiant smile that stretched his face then… it broke my heart into pieces. He shouldn’t want that. Even as an outsider, as a human, it felt wrong.
“But…” His face fell, and I forced myself to continue. “…I don’t know if you ought to change so easily.”
And he pleaded then, tears gathering under his big chocolate eyes, his lips quivering. And begged on his knees and cried onto my fur. The dam had burst, Sea Salt held nothing back, not when I had dangled his hopes so close and yet still out of reach.
Why? I thought, a cold hand tightening its grasp around my throat. It’s only a dream, right? What would be the harm if you did give him this?
“Please!” Sea Salt sobbed. “Prince William, please! I am sick of being singled out! I don’t want to be boring and useless anymore! I want to cook! I want to be good! And cool! A-a-and… Please!”
My heart sank. It wouldn’t be this easy, of course. Heartaches are never easy to overcome. Even like this, I couldn’t cure this child’s trouble for him with just a pep talk.
But there was another way.
I knew what to say. The words had come to me, cruel and merciful, when he had pleaded to change. They had suddenly stretched across my mind and there was nothing else for me to think. They made my voice weak, made it trembling and hoarse, but they fell like the crack of thunder above the winds and the cries.
“Do you want me to change your cutie mark?”
Sea Salt stared. He blinked. And nothing but a faint squeak came out of his mouth while his tail curled over his mark again, this time not in shame. “N-no,” he said faintly. “I’m sorry. I won’t ask again, please don’t.”
It should have been happier. That moment of realization should have been so much more. Possessiveness was written all over his shimmering gaze: ‘Don’t take it away. It’s what I love doing the most.’ Yet that only compounded the problem, didn’t it? He wanted to cook, but didn’t have any faith that he could do it.
And dear oh dear, I couldn’t accept that. Not here. Not in this one place where I had the power to matter.
“There is… something I can do, Sea Salt.”
He flinched and closed his eyes, his face crunched up almost comically. Droplets still followed the damp trails of fur on his face, but his chest no longer heaved.
I waited a moment, a silent prayer on my lips, and I reached far for the will to do this.
Red light washed over him, a blanket of power and change slowly covering him from head to hooves. Sea Salt made no sound, gave no indication that he felt what was happening, but the light became of startling strength, like a second, edgy sun. Even I had to look away, a leg in front of my eyes. But when I looked back, the process was over.
His muscles had grown, his muzzle had become more prominent and he could almost directly look me in the eyes without straining his neck. Where his built had been scrawnier, it was now muscled and honestly impressive.
It was thus unfair that when he opened his eyes, it was his jaw that dropped in shock.
“You’re smaller,” he said with a low-pitch voice that made me chuckle.
“Yeah, no, try again, kiddo,” I laughed and made a mirror appear.
He startled, running to hide behind me in the face of this new ‘threat’. My complete lack of reaction however coaxed him from behind my wing, and he slowly peaked over the ridiculous reddish black feathers. The reflection in the mirror froze as I stepped away, and it was only one former colt staring at the stallion in front of him.
“That’s me?” he asked, incredulous.
Perhaps in my grand generosity, I had given him as many advantages as I could think of. He’d be a real charmer if he grew up to be like this, that’s for sure.
“Eeyup. Looking good, Sea Salt, don’t you think?”
Speechless.
“That, Sea Salt,” – I pointed at his chest, at his muzzle – “is who you might become, if you work toward it. Do you feel the strength in your limbs? The talent at the tip of your hooves? Or the wisdom in your head? It’s all there. Everything you could learn, it’s there.”
A faint glow shone from his cutie mark as Sea Salt looked down at his own hooves in wonder.
“When you wake up, you will not remember it.” His childish deception looked almost comical on that grown ass stallion in front of me. It made it easier to grin. “But you will know there was a time you could do it. And from there, it’ll be only up to you to chase that ideal again. There’s more than one path to your dreams, boy.”
“I…” He fumbled, his eyes wide. Yet, with every passing second, the realization sank in. The shaking stopped, his muscles relaxed. And he reared, a loud and vibrant neight of triumph echoing around us. “I’ll do it, Prince William! I’ll go show them all!”
“Attaboy, Sea Salt. Go knock ‘em dead!”
He stopped dead in his track. “What?!” he shouted, his voice growing nearly as high-pitched as it had been before.
I facehoofed. “Figuratively speaking.”
That only made his confusion deepen. “Huh?”
Right. Colt.
“I meant… look, it’s just a saying. Don’t actually do it, just go try to get that pony to teach you cooking. He can’t tell you ‘no’ now. I’ll be rooting for you.”
The sun had nothing on the pure radiance that was Sea Salt’s grin then. “Even if you’re not real, you’re the best prince ever!”
I blinked, and he was already well on his way back to town. Somehow, the sight of him, all grown-up and galloping on the beach, had my chest brimming with warmth. His bullies better watch out, Sea Salt was a whole new pony now.
“Huh,” I said to myself, “I really am rooting for him…”
That should have made me feel silly instead of proud. Intense as it had been, the conversation with Sea Salt could only be one more thing to forget once I woke up. Or maybe it would be that one moment I remembered. Or anything in-between, perhaps.
Right now though? I felt like a bigger hero than ever before.